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Good tidings to you, my friends here on Lord of the Craft, and perhaps those even contemplating applying to our esteemed server. One of the things I am most passionate about is roleplaying. It is something I take incredibly seriously and thus the one thing I am proud to say in no uncertain terms that I am very good at. I have decided to share my personal secrets and strategies on how to make interesting, fun and immersive RP for everyone. As somebody who takes pride in leaving RP scenarios with having done the best I possibly could to make it fun and interesting, I hope to pass these things along to you. It should be a relatively short guide, as it's quite simple to live by! So what makes good RP? I divide good RP into three categories: Detail, Ambiance, and Creativity. Part I: Detail In roleplay, actions speak louder than words. That said, sacrificing boring dialogue with adding detailed actions (emotes) that reflect what your character does/feels. Speech is only a small percentage of actual communication in the real world, and it is no different in Anthos. Take this scenario for example. Arik delighted to find an old friend returning to the grove, Wayward Druid Respiren. Observe how I take advantage of the situation to enrich the RP with my character's own feelings. The Druid smiles, shifting his weight against his staff as he beholds the ancient Druid. He closes his eyes, lifting his head up and inhaling deeply the fresh fragrance of pine and cloverleaf, exhaling it in a mad laughter as he jaunts over to the man, clapping him upon the shoulder. "Ahaha! Wayward Druid, it has been too long indeed!" Notice how I embellished heavily on the actions I took, enriching it by giving the action greater meaning and presence. As opposed to just "The Druid smiles happily", it brought personality to the roleplay, therefore making it more memorable and more fun for both parties. Something we shouldn't do, is roleplaying our thoughts out through emotes.. This is something I see people to in place of actual action, but it is a false way of roleplaying, it doesn't bring anything as it doesn't have actual presence. Our thoughts are private, and so we should not be using emotes to convey them to ourselves if we already experience them. Instead, we need to convey emotions through body language or tonality, thus showing our feelings to the other party. In this section you've learned how detail can really spice up roleplay, quite simply. Now we'll go to the next section! Part II: Ambience The next big secret to good roleplay is ambiance. What is this exactly? Ambiance is taking advantage of the environment around you and using it to immerse yourself and those around you in realism and intrigue. A good roleplayer uses this to set the mood, fill pauses in character discussion, and even aide other players in their own RP. It's quite a simple concept (as is this entire guide!) But take this example here. Two characters are having a deep conversation, but there is a pause in interaction between the two as they both ponder. Does this mean there needs to be a pause in RP? No! As Arik sits back, the sound of the crackling fireplace can be heard from the cozy inn. Drowned out by thought are faint sounds of chairs scraping against wood or shouts of glee as patrons downed pints. The night cold seemed to be held at bay by the glowing hub of life that was the inn, the smell of rabbit stew tantalizing the hungry, it was as if things were just perfect. Hopefully this will open your mind up to newer and more interesting roleplay! A fancy tip for those of you out there is to take advantage of the /setname function to fully immerse yourself and others in the roleplay! Part III: Creativity Finally we can take what we learned from our first two parts and put them into a greater purpose: creating roleplay for others. Because at the heart of everything this is what truly makes a great roleplayer, somebody who takes the time to really put that extra touch and immerse others in the roleplay. Villains are not the only ones who are tasked with this! If you are on the server, it is your job! The stale, classic thing to do is to cause a fight, but this is overdone and not much fun for the losing party. Why not think of new ways to entertain people? Tell stories by the fire! Sing a song! Dance a jig through the streets, or put on a play! Use your detail to your advantage and tell a spooky story by the campfire, using the ambient spookiness of night to aid in the immersion of your story. I can't explain all the things you can do, but the sheer aspect or notion of creativity should carry you a long way. Create something detailed and immersive, with ambient environments that are memorable and fun. In the end it has less to do with winning or losing and more to do with fun, memorable experiences. Thanks for reading!
